A $400 million-plus mixed-use village with two skyscrapers rising 67 and 51 levels is mooted to replace a rundown car-park at 380 Lonsdale Street – a site purchased by listed Singaporean developer Hiap Hoe 10 months ago with a permit for one 46-level building.
In another show of how fast Melbourne planning precedents have shifted in just a year, the proposed village will contain 1040 apartments and 469 car park bays compared with the permitted 627 flats and 774 bays.
Soon after buying the site Hiap Hoe announced it would engage boutique architect firm Elenberg Fraser to design a new concept for the site, which also has access to Little Lonsdale Street. At the time it was suggested the proposal would include two towers rising about 51 and 47 levels.
The taller skyscrapers in Elenberg Fraser’s latest proposal will sit above a five-level podium.
More than 300 flats will be configured as hotel suites, continuing a theme in many proposals recently lodged by offshore developers for residents to live with visitors. Retail, office, function space and rooftop recreation facilities will also form part of the proposed new project.
Hiap Hoe paid $43.8 million for the 3165-square-metre Lonsdale Street site as part of a $177.8 million spending spree that also saw it buy a Docklands development site and Bourke Street shopping centre, with airspace expected to be developed with offices.
Also this week, another Singapore developer, Aspial, lodged plans with Planning Minister Matthew Guy to replace a low-rise office at 383-405 King Street – until recently occupied by the National Australia Bank – with a 23-level, 392-unit apartment building.
In June it approached Mr Guy again to boost the height of proposed 49-level tower at 54-64 A’Beckett Street to 81-levels. The minister also approved Aspial’s plans for the revised 70 Kavanagh Street building – set to be the southern hemisphere’s first 100-storey super-scraper.
Parkville
Another major development site in Parkville’s tree-lined Royal Parade is about to hit the market, carrying price expectations, sources say, of about $10 million.
The Parade Inn motel, on 3221 square metres at 535-541 Royal Parade, has been listed for the first time since the early 1980s, targeting hotel investors and residential developers likely to build a much taller building.
The 41-room Parade Inn site also has frontage to The Avenue.
The listing comes months after the University of Melbourne paid the Salvation Army $26 million for a 4500-square-metre landholding at 303-305 Royal Parade and 80-90 The Avenue. Monash University also has a Parkville campus at 381 Royal Parade.
In May, an educator of a different kind – the Australian Ballet School – paid $4.7 million for the historic Queen Anne mansion Auld Reekie at 511 Royal Parade, near the Parade Inn, which is being marketed by CBRE’s Josh Rutman, Scott Callow, Mark Wizel and Ed Wright.
Williams Landing offices
As it enters the final stage of construction, Cedar Woods is seeking tenants for what may be the western suburb’s most exclusive new office space.
The 100 Overton Road office building is part of the $30 million Williams Landing Shopping Centre, about 20 kilometres from the CBD. The Perth-based developer is asking rents of about $350 per square metre, per annum – which is comparable to some (albeit much lower quality) inner-city offerings.
The office is premium grade, NBN ready and available configured as suites between 50 and 1000 square metres. Jones Lang LaSalle’s Colin Dioguardi is representing Cedar Woods.
Genesis sale
A local investor has paid $5.7 million for a strata-titled fitness centre at the bottom of the near-new Adesso complex in Mentone, in south-east bayside Melbourne.
Based on the annual rent of $617,000, which the Genesis fitness club is paying, the asset sold on a yield of 10.8 per cent – substantially higher than current bank borrowing rates.
The 2245-square-metre facility includes 70 car parks and was offered with a 12-year lease to Genesis. The gym has the option to stay for two further five-year terms.
Knight Frank’s Marcus Quinn and Tim Grant marketed the site at 86-88 Balcombe Road as a “double-digit yield investment”.
South East Water requirement
South East Water is looking for a depot to replace older facilities in Heatherton and Lynbrook.
The utility group, whose next headquarters is currently under construction on the Frankston waterfront, needs a depot facility to house emergency response crews that can be called to jobs as far away as Southbank.
SEW’s requirement is for more than a hectare of land around Dandenong South, giving it easy access to EastLink and the Monash Freeway. The depot will also need to have office facilities – about 500 square metres – but be majority warehouse and hard stand. More than 11,000 square metres of industrial space is required.
While SEW will own the Frankston office, due for completion next year, it will lease the new depot. One of the facilities it is quitting, in Heatherton, is owned by local developer Pellicano, with the other owned by a local investor.
Duckboard House
A private investor has paid $9.5 million for the CBD’s Duckboard House, a building that for 60 years was owner-occupied by the Returned and Services League.
The asset – now a fully leased office and retail investment – was offloaded by local investor Applied Capital, which extended it by two levels in 2008 at a cost of nearly $3 million.
Applied Capital paid the RSL $3.1 million for the then three-level complex at 91-93 Flinders Lane. The RSL bought the 1930s art deco building in 1949 for $40,000.
Duckboard House now has a lettable area of about 1000 square metres. On the ground floor is restaurant and bar Papa Goose.
Alexander Robertson selling agent Kristian Peatling said the deal reflected a healthy price per square metre of $9500. Five years ago, he said, the price per square metre of a similar building in the area would have been about half that.
Despite the recent extension, airspace atop Duckboard House provides further development potential, he said. Duckboard House sold on a yield of 5 per cent.
Email: marcpallisco@gmail.com
Twitter: @marcpallisco
